Diablo (Mes de Guzman, Cinemalaya 2012 New Breed Best Picture)

‘Ewan ko nga kung bakit nilagay ako sa New Breed.’

Award-winning director Mes de Guzman submitted his Diablo script for the Directors Showcase category of Cinemalaya. But, even though he has made seven films, he still hasn’t met a crucial requirement. The veteran director doesn’t have at least three full-length commercial feature films to his name.

Fortunately, the guys at Cinemalaya decided to include his script as one of the 10 New Breed finalists. It was a big surprise, a pleasant one at that, to read about his inclusion at Cinemalaya. Cineastes and knowledgeable film buffs eagerly awaited his film.

Diablo didn’t disappoint. The film deservedly won five awards, including Best Picture and Best Direction. It is so good that it can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the top films from the Directors Showcase category.

The film soaks the viewers in an atmosphere of dread. The early shots of a miner possessed by the demon sets the stage for a creepy, chills-filled viewing. A creaky gate and an old house bathed in darkness add suspense to the film. Anything, paranormal or not, can happen any time.

But, having spooked his viewers, de Guzman applies the effective, Richard Somes-style of familial horror. The devil is not some hideous monster but takes the form of a flattering, deceptive human being. Family members are slowly introduced along with mischievous characters. Nana Lusing (Ama Quiambao) is a religious matriarch not unlike Rosa Rosal’s character in Biyaya ng Lupa. Both widows show unconditional love for their wayward sons. They are shown scrounging for coins to give to their sons. Both mothers had a breakdown in which they embraced things that helped them kept their sanity and faith. Both breakdowns end up as bookends for the excellent award-winning performances of Quiambao and Rosal.

Mes de Guzman is an actor’s director. He has an uncanny ability to bring out the best from his bevy of veteran actors and young performers. Maybe the picnic-like atmosphere during shooting helps build up rapport amongst the crew and cast. Arnold Reyes remarked that the shoot up north was quite memorable. Quiambao narrated how the director guided her in tackling her strong character. She was getting impatient with a long scene but de Guzman wasn’t keen on halting it. Those long takes capture the solitary life of the old mother.

Nana Lusing, a fervent radio listener, reminds me of my elders in Nueva Vizcaya. Several of them have acute hearing like that of Marvel superhero Daredevil. They know who is up and about the house just by the sounds they make. Creepy? Not if you’re not doing anything naughty.

When Loy Arcenas made a strong debut with his Niño film, I was one of those who wished for him to compete once more in the Cinemalaya competition. Now, I hope de Guzman try once more to enter a festival competition. He gets better and more confident with every film he makes. I, for one, am eagerly anticipating the last film of his Earth trilogy. Will the film be worth celebrating at Leonides restaurant? Let’s wait and see.

Cinemalaya Rises: The best picture stars...

Batman?!? Nope. 

The best picture of Cinemalaya 8 (and possibly year 2012) stars Boatman.

The hilarious and 'Pinoy na Pinoy' film Ang Mga Kidnaper ni Ronnie Lazaro follows a group of indie filmmakers desperate to cast the busy, elusive actor. The hi-jinks of the gang are a delight to watch as they struggle to shoot a low-budget Filipino film. The audience at the CCP's Little Theater had a blast laughing out loud and, umm, 'interacting' with the film.

It was quite a journey for the real film crew and cast. The well-marinated script took all of seven years for the self-confessed original bad boy of Cinemalaya, Sigfreid Barros-Sanchez, to cook and serve to the public. The banned director stubbornly submitted the script yearly to Cinemalaya but only ended up disappointed each time. The well-revised script finally found a home in Film Development Council of the Philippines' Sineng Pambansa competition. The film ended up as the winner of the competition's 1st phase. 

Catch the film on August 4, Saturday evening at the Cine Adarna in UP Diliman. I'll be there and so will others that have already seen it. The film is really, reaallly that funny. Thanks, Siegfreid. 

James Batman (1966, Artemio Marquez)

The blockbuster hit The Avengers has amassed more than half a billion pesos in box office take. Can the latest James Bond caper Skyfall or the latest Batman epic equal that distinction? It is a possibility although a dream team-up of the two heroes is more likely the only way to match the box-office stash of the star-studded film, The Avengers.

The idea of pairing the brave, brooding Batman with the bold, ballsy James Bond is not entirely new. It had been done before in the 1960s by a wildly inventive, copyright-eschewing Filipino film production company, Sampaguita Pictures. The resulting film, James Batman, is more fun than The Avengers, more satisfying than The Dark Knight, and more watchable than most 007 flicks.

James Batman is a grand showcase of Dolphy’s impeccable timing and wonderful adlibs. The Filipino comedy legend does a parody of the two Western heroes. His Batman is a campier take on Adam West’s Batman, while the local Bond is a unique Dolphy concoction. Deadly with women, James (Dolphy) gets into numerous amorous affairs. Caught in a compromising situation by female lover Janna, he concocts up a witty alibi in a flash. He is clearly an escape artist par excellence. The first scene shows him fleeing from a horde of women with the help of smoke bombs. He evades death a couple of times. So far, James seems to be in the mold of the early Sean Connery iterations of the British agent.

The appearance of James is not so heroic though. He is a gangly, Chaplinesque guy wearing an eye-catching plaid suit, which is later revealed to be from the same source as a bed sheet. It is no wonder then that he is able to bed various women at will. But, underneath James’ seemingly comic/carefree persona is a misogynist brute. A female assassin gets manhandled by James in a terrifying fit of rage. The combination of comic and brute personas makes James a loose ball of a character. The viewer is left wondering what the secret agent will do next.

Another character that made a strong, early impact on the viewers is the bearer of bad tidings to a pan-Asian conference. The messenger, a Fu Manchu-looking guy, is a representative of the dreaded Klaw organization. With a strong presence and assertive voice, he calls on the Asian delegates to heed the group’s orders. He disintegrates a security guard with his finger and makes a vanishing act in front of astonished guards. Sadly, that is the last time the viewer sees him. He disappears completely from the film after his escape.

Dolphy’s Batman comes to the rescue of the world (and the film). He makes the film watchable and enjoyable even sans the cool Fu Manchu guy. He elicits the most laughs, especially during a cliffhanger of a scene that left me breathless. He parades the coolest of gadgets (e.g. the Batmobile exudes the sexiness of Bond’s Aston Martin and the Belt Bag adds a surprising twist to a meal) that can shame even those invented by Q.

These references to the Batman iconography and the Bond films make the movie a delight to watch. The monstrous claw hand refers to James Bond’s close brush with the lethal laser beam and Oddjob’s strong vise-like grip in the 1964 hit Goldfinger. Gamers may have seen the uncanny similarity of the monstrous claw hand with Nintendo’s Crazy Hand.

When I was in my teens, I was a huge fan of Batman and James Bond. I devoured the paperbacks, comics, and films. However, I’ve outgrown my fondness for most Bond films. Majority of them have lost their edginess. I’ve never adored any of the Batman films including the overrated hit The Dark Knight. There are a few things that I still loved after all these years, including the George Lazenby film, Goldfinger, The Spy Who Loved Me, and Bruce Timm’s Batman animated series. My latest addition to this pantheon of favorite films/videos is James Batman. It also belongs now to my list of favorite Dolphy films. 

CNMLY 2012 : (

No more MNL 143? Wahhh!

Of all the finalists to Cinemalaya’s Directors Showcase and New Breed competitions, I was most excited with the proposed full-length entry of Emerson Reyes. He was a promising find last year. I loved his hilarious short film Walang Katapusang Kwarto, which won the Best Short Film award at Cinemalaya 2011. It is one of those rare films that capture the personality of its maker. The film is charmingly funny with large doses of impishness.

Unfortunately for the young director, his entry titled MNL 143 was recently disqualified by the Cinemalaya monitoring committee headed by Robbie Tan. The main reason given was Reyes’ insistence on casting Alan Paule and Joy Viado as main leads. Tan was quoted in PEP’s exclusive article as saying that the pairing will not work and lacks chemistry. He still hasn’t learned his lesson with the Sheika controversy years ago. Sheika’s film director Arnel Mardoquio withdrew his film from the New Breed competition because Cinemalaya officials were convincing him to replace his unknown actress with a more famous star. The Sheika team was vindicated when it won the NETPAC award that year from Cinemalaya. The lead star, Fe Ging-Ging Hyde, later won the Urian Best Actress award from the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino.

I’m outraged with Tan’s remarks. Reading between the lines, the gist of his explanation is that Viado is not good looking enough to have Paule as a boyfriend/lover. Tan seems to prefer Star Cinema’s romance films in which the young leads are all good looking and Seiko’s titillating films in which sexy girls and handsome hunks frolic in skimpy attire. Are love stories of ordinary looking people not good enough for the big screen?

But, more than the alleged lack of chemistry between the two proposed leads, I think the real reason behind the disqualification of the film is its perceived lack of box-office potential. Paule and Viado do not have the clout to pull in moviegoers. However, a good script can overcome that liability.

Box-office money (and the elusive theater run) is now the end-goal of Tan and company. Greater audience acceptability is an important criterion behind the casting of Cinemalaya films. The Cinema One Originals group has also succumbed to the lure of box-office bonanza. The group led by Ronald Arguelles has amended its rule to provide more money to projects with box-office potential. Isn’t Cinema One Originals a competition? So where is the fairness in providing more money to commercial projects?

It’s the end of the local film grant world as we know it, folks. We'll be seeing less of experimental, edgy films and more of bland, commercial films. Maybe in the coming years,  we'll see the likes of  films with titles such as 'Enteng N'yong Lahat' barging in at the competitions. The likes of Vic Sotto, Ai-ai de las Alas, John Lloyd Cruz, and Derek Ramsay will bring in the crowds. Wahhh!

It's a good thing there's still the Film Development Council of the Philippines giving grants to indie filmmakers, most of them are not based in Manila. Now their films are likely to be original and sporting a new breed of filmmaking. There's still hope for indie film lovers.


Related link/s:

PDInquirer article

Pasinaya 2012: The CCP Open House Festival

Do you love…

Art

Cinemalaya films

Dinagyang

Fun

Ilonggo culture

World-class performances?

Then get ready for the Pasinaya 2012: The CCP Open House Festival on Sunday, February 26. Get info here.

Register now! to avoid long queues.

****
 

Watch the winners of the 23RD GAWAD CCP Para sa Alternatibong Pelikula at Video at the Dream Theater:

9:30 AM        

Documentary:

1st Prize AGOS (WAVES) (TRT: 00:20:00)

By Samantha Lee

11:30 AM

Animation:

1st Prize PAANO HULIHIN ANG ARAW (TRT: 00:09:00)

By Jane Mariel L. Almoneda

2nd Prize SANAYAN LANG ANG PAGPATAY (TRT: 0:03:15)

By Gil Joseph A. Sanchez 

Honorable Mention AY BULATE! (TRT: 00:04:00)

By Daryl R. Layson

Honorable Mention HIMIG (TRT: 00:05:02)

By Edlaine Ann S. Mercado

Honorable Mention KALARO (TRT: 00:07:27)

By Girlie A. Palo

2:00 PM

Short Feature:

1st Prize SARONG ALDAW (TRT: 00:14:30)

By Marianito Dio, Jr.

3rd Prize DAHIL SA 'YO (TRT: 00:11:00)

By Gym Lumbera

3:30 PM

Documentary:

Finalist WORKING WHILE IN CLASS (TRT: 00:20:00)

By Maevelyn Calapardo

4:00 PM

Experimental:

1st Prize CLASS PICTURE (TRT: 00:04:40)
By Timmy Harn and Gym Lumbera

3rd Prize MANENAYA (WAITING) (TRT: 00:14:53)
By Richard Soriano Legaspi 

4:30 PM

Short Feature:

Honorable Mention MAN OF THE HOUSE (TRT: 00:08:14)

By Chuck Hipol

Honorable Mention INOSENSYA (TRT: 00:14:00)

By Mikhail Red

5:30 PM

Short Feature:

2nd Prize AWIT NI MARIA (TRT: 00:30:00)

By Nica Santiago


PLUS: Re-runs of Cinemalaya short films...

Sa Kanto ng Ulap at Lupa (2011, Mes de Guzman)

A rare trip to my hometown Bayombong, capital of Nueva Vizcaya, made me appreciate the realism of Mes de Guzman's award-winning film Of Skies and Earth. I saw firsthand the majestic beauty of cloud-capped mountain ranges. It seems heavenly to anyone gazing from afar. But, as one gets up close one sees that not all is tranquil up there. Roads ravaged by storms and torrential rains will add hours and sometimes days to your travel time. Heck, a newspaper even labeled Nueva Vizcaya as the ‘bad roads capital of the Philippines.’


Life in the highlands becomes grey and muddy with the onset of the rainy season. Groups of indigenous people complain about the effect of bad roads on the sales of their farm products and the provision of much-needed services. Not much work is required during this wet period. 


Sa Kanto ng Ulap at Lupa is set during such bleak economic period. A pair of kids, Rodolfo aka Yoyong and younger brother Poklat, descend to Bayombong and adjoining municipalities to earn some money. They take shelter in an abandoned house along with two boys, Uding and Boying. The four kids do various odd jobs.


The best scenes show the kids at play or just plainly conversing with one another. They remind me of my childhood experiences and the stories told by our elders. One such story I’ve heard during my recent trip was about how my aunts and their playmates would nonchalantly shoo away floating feces during their swimming escapades. Ilocanos also has this habit of scaring each through ghost stories. The slaughterhouse manager is scared shitless because of the kids’ story about vengeful porcine spirits.


A most memorable scene from the film shows Yoyong and Uding ambushing a young lad. Instead of a fist fight, we see Yoyong meekly apologizing to his fellow teenager Adoy. The four kids may have some mean streak in them but they do have good hearts. All they need is some guidance and probably more education.



As seen in the film, services 
in the province are well provided in the lowlands but not so in the highlands. A team of police arrives immediately at a crime scene. A truckload of firemen responds promptly to a fire alarm. The manager of the slaughterhouse worries about the possibility of a random inspection by the town mayor. The residents of the highlands are the ones getting the short end of the stick.


Director Mes de Guzman gained prominence with his pro-education film debut Ang Daan Patungong Kalimugtong. He once again highlights the importance of education. Yoyong is barely literate. Lack of accessible education must have been the likely culprit. A few reading lessons turned the young man into a loving person. A few more years of formal education would have transformed Yoyong into a better, caring person.

The final scene shows how the bleak, grey lives of the kids turn into a colorful albeit short-lived existence. Heaven for them is a bountiful harvest. But, who will survive to attain that divine promise?

Ka Oryang (2011, Sari Raissa Lluch Dalena)

Among the 10 films from the Cinema One Originals Festival 2011, Sari Lluch Dalena’s film Ka Oryang was the only one to get a perfect 10 on my scorecard. It was my bet for the Audience Choice award, which eventually went to Six Degrees of Separation from Lilia Cuntapay. For those wondering about that mysterious citation, the award was chosen by a group of viewers privileged to see all 10 entries way before the gala premieres at Shangri-La Cineplex. (Salamat nga po pala sa Cinema One team para sa mga libreng screenings at pagkain).

The Martial Law film may not have been popular enough to win that certain award but it was spectacular enough to nab the Best Picture award handed out by the festival jury. Right off the bat, Ka Oryang grabs the viewer’s attention with its lean, jugular black-and-white depiction of the Diliman Commune at the University of the Philippines (UP). The crisp powerful images (including that of a female Oblation) and chilling soundscape (e.g. piercing banshee wails of the students) send shivers to my bones. I’m moved and teary-eyed as I recall the heroism of students and the sacrifices of young martyrs during the seventies. Those were the years of rage against the regime of President Ferdinand Marcos.

An apathetic student named Gregoria de la Cruz (Alessandra de Rossi) witnesses the brutal suppression of legitimate dissent during the First Quarter Storm. A bloodied acquaintance of hers lies dying in front of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Fast forward to the mid-1970s, Gregoria, now a dedicated rural doctor, tends to a bloodied comrade of Ka Noli (Joem Bascon). She asks questions about Ka Noli’s work with the underground movement. Even though she has seen first-hand the abuses by the minions of Marcos, she remains apolitical and just serves the people in her own unique way. She is not unlike real-life rural doctor Bobby de la Paz who treated sick people no matter what their political affiliations are. De la Paz was eventually gunned down at his clinic in Samar because of rumors suspecting him to be a communist or with links to the New People’s Army (NPA). Aside from de la Paz, young martyr Ma. Lorena Barros is another peg for the character of Gregoria. Barros was a UP student who joined the armed guerrilla revolution. She was a beautiful amazon who rose to the ranks of the rebels.

Gregoria’s main reason for joining the rebels is not clearly delineated. (This is not a weakness of the film for it is similar to the case of slain student leader Edjop, who mysteriously shunned his privileged background to take up arms.) It must have been love or it must have been belated awakening to the sufferings of the Filipino people. Or it could be a whole lot of other reasons.

Most likely, one of the reasons is a person who makes an appearance in the film. A surprising documentary footage shows President Ferdinand Marcos and family hobnobbing with and charming the socks off of Chinese leader Mao Zedong. Marcos has often been cited as the number one recruiter for communists in the Philippines. Widespread human rights abuses during the Marcos period pushed people to join the revolutionary movement. The black-and-white footage is somewhat apt then. Communist leader Zedong meets the number one recruiter of Reds in the Philippines.

Gregoria is just one of the countless emboldened Filipino women, inspired by Katipuneras such as Ka Oriang de Jesus, who fought for their rights and the rights of their countrymen. She meets other women warriors in prison after her arrest.

Director/scriptwriter Dalena presents harrowing experiences of these female political prisoners. A nude female recruiter for the NPA is tortured atop a block of ice. A pregnant detainee ends up being a punch bag. A mother is shot point-blank in front of her kid. Most of these tales are said to be based on real-life experiences of Martial Law victims.

Ka Oryang is a tribute to those young people who gave up their lives fighting the dark forces of Marcos. It is an important film for it serves as a reminder to a dark, grim period in the history of the Philippines. There have been high-profile attempts to portray the Marcos era as mostly a positive period for the country. Well, this film debunks that revisionist image. Ka Oriang de Jesus had some words for people who twist history for vested interests. The lakambini of the Katipunan said ‘fear history, for it respects no secrets.’

Anatomiya ng Korupsiyon (2011, Dennis Marasigan)

Anatomiya ng Korupsiyon is notable for its incorruptible character, Attorney Cely Martinez. The film starts with a Bing Lao-styled establishing shot of the main character’s house and inner disposition. We see lots of diplomas plastered on a wall of this derelict house. The beauteous young lady prepares breakfast on what is her first day of work. Her mother is disappointed to learn that she will work for the government. The elder mutters that she’ll end up just like her father, who was not rich enough to make his family live the sweet life. The smiling young girl says nothing and eats heartily her simple breakfast of pandesal. However, the smile, somewhat awkward and mocking, seems not to be what the director ordered. Maricar Reyes as Cely Martinez started on the wrong foot but showed brilliance in most latter scenes.

Reyes gets into the groove of things as she portrays a dedicated, maverick hearing officer. Martinez’s diligence and promptness in dealing with her cases cause annoyance amongst her colleagues and co-workers. Fellow lawyers prefer a delay in their cases because more hearing appearances translate into more fees. Stenographers and regular clerks also benefit from prolonged cases. Her colleagues subtly, and later on directly, show her illicit ways of earning quick bucks.

Attorney Martinez remains steadfast in shunning grease money. Even when hospital and medical care bills start to pile up, she manages to elude the menacing tentacles of a corrupt government office. She even makes a hasty exit from a Christmas party because she cannot fathom to mingle with corrupt people. As she ambles out, we notice her sweet smile, a smile that could only emanate from a pure heart. It is a smile that seems to say “Dad, I’ve kept your name clean.” The movie should have ended with that smile but it goes on for a few more minutes.

A fine blend of Dennis Marasigan’s reliable deft direction and Bing Lao’s creative inputs, Anatomiya ng Korupsiyon is an almost solid Cinema One Originals entry. I adored it so much right up to Cely Martinez’s victory walk. But when she steps into the elevator and darkness engulfs her, the film goes down a few notches for me.

The movie has made a strong case against corruption so I was bewildered with the elevator scene and subsequently, the Jun Lozada footage. Cely Martinez is no ordinary office employee that cannot afford to lose her job. She can easily get another job. Her father’s legacy seems to be her bedrock of courage. She is not supposed to be helpless against the dark forces.

Meanwhile, the Jun Lozada footage shows the whistleblower at a 2008 Senate hearing narrating how his boss Romulo Neri instructed him to ‘moderate their greed.’ As it is, the footage is not clear enough on what message it wants to impart. Yes, it does suggest that not much has changed since the Marcos years. But is it a call to accept moderate corruption or is it a call for more courageous whistleblowers to come forward to eradicate wrongdoing in government? If it is the latter, then help and hope is indeed on the way for those people doing the right thing in public offices.

The last two or three minutes of this film will likely elicit conflicting extreme reactions from moviegoers. I didn’t like the elevator scene and the Jun Lozada footage but the scenes that came before them and the character Cely Martinez are good enough to make me rate the film highly among the Cinema One Originals entries.

Six Degrees of Separation From Lilia Cuntapay (2011, Antoinette Jadaone)

Four women directors upstaged their male counterparts at the Cinema One Originals Festival 2011. Sari Lluch Dalena won the best director award for her brilliant Martial Law film Ka Oryang. Ivy Baldoza’s sensuous and sultry film Mga Anino sa Tanghaling Tapat nabbed the jury prize. Shireen Seno’s ambitious film Big Boy got rave reviews from prominent film bloggers. However, those three films have their fair share of detractors.

The hilarious mockumentary Six Degrees of Separation from Lilia Cuntapay (SDOSFLC) is the runaway popular and critical hit of the fest. The fourth female filmmaker, Antoinette Jadaone, deservedly won the best screenplay award. With ample support from Raymond Lee and Joyce Bernal, the charming filmmaker/scriptwriter crafted an engaging, incisive, and rollicking look at the travails of a bit-player in a cult horror movie series.

Ghoulish looking Lilia Cuntapay (played by Lilia Cuntapay) has been in the movie industry for thirty years. She endured countless hours waiting for her turn during shoots. She has disrobed for the camera in the film Babae sa Breakwater. All those dedication and commitment have finally paid off as the septuagenarian bit player nabs an acting nomination from AFTAP. The film shows how Cuntapay responds to this bit of great news. She prepares a speech in case she wins the best supporting actress award.

The big night arrives and the camera captures a nervous Cuntapay resplendent in a silver dress. Angel Aquino then reads out the winner of the best actress award… Lilia Cuntapay!

Wait a minute… Silver dress? Angel Aquino? Best actress? In a scene that could have been made specifically for this movie, Cuntapay really did win an acting award, albeit shared with Maricar Reyes. She took a deep breath and acknowledged that she didn’t expect to win the Best Actress award at the Cinema One Originals Festival 2011. Proof of that is she didn’t prepare a speech. As a result, she had a mental block and failed to thank directors Peque Gallaga, Lore Reyes, and Jadaone. The combination of spotlights, cameras, and the presence of Nora Aunor might have unnerved her during her speech, which is not unlike those fictitious speeches in the movie. Initially, I thought the movie’s speech segments were weak as they show Cuntapay’s limited acting ability. But, having seen the acceptance speech of Cuntapay, I realized that she is not acting in those speech segments. That is the true Cuntapay we are seeing. If she seems uneasy and uncomfortable it is because she just doesn’t buy the idea that she’ll be nominated for an acting award much less wins an award. Savor the speech segments for a glimpse of the true Lilia Cuntapay.

Jadaone’s film is a stunning meta-movie mind-fuck. It blurs the line between fiction and reality. All throughout the movie, one is left wondering what the truth is. Is Myra a real relative of Cuntapay? The actress who portrayed Myra won the best supporting actress award and acknowledged Cuntapay as her aunt in her speech, which shows her good sense of humor. Again, she is what she seems to play in the movie. I loved the part in which she helps Cuntapay practice her lines. Their rapport seems to suggest some blood affinity. Is that the place Cuntapay really lives in? Only the cast and crew know. How I wish I could attend a post-screening forum someday so I could unravel amazing details about the film.

I liked this film better than the Cinemalaya blockbuster film Ang Babae Sa Septic Tank (ABSST) for one major reason. ABSST seems to spring out of envy. That film comes across as being made to spite successful filmmakers such as Pepe Diokno and Jim Libiran. On the other hand, SDOSFLC was made out of deep love for an underdog, a film underdog at that. I love stories of ordinary people making it big. And with this film, a bit player morphs into an award-winning actress. A few more sold-out screenings and the name Lilia Cuntapay will be on most moviegoers’ lips.

Bisperas (2011, Jeffrey Jeturian)

T’was the night before Christmas, and… all hell breaks loose for the Aguinaldos, members of a middle-class Filipino family. Grudges, hurts, sins, and even turds spill out in the open. The next day we find the family members lining up for communion during the Christmas Day mass as if nothing happened. They are mere Christians in name. They have a perverted sense of right and wrong. They regard themselves as being always right while others are in the wrong.

Bisperas is a nice comeback for Jeturian after a disastrous foray in short feature filmmaking. His X-rated AmBisyon 2010 project is off-putting for its brusque depiction of disapproval for the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. I agree with the message but not the way it was conveyed. I preferred Jon Red’s PSG, which is a subtler and beautifully-lensed take on the matter.

Jeturian scoops up the dirt once more and smears it this time on hypocrite Catholics. Ouch! That really hurts… Bisperas is a film that will make lots of viewers uneasy and smelly.

The film starts with a well-staged Panunuluyan, a Christmas tradition commemorating the travails of St. Joseph and the pregnant Virgin Mary. Among the participants is a young man eager to communicate with his brother. His smile is met with rude indifference. As the procession is in progress, a gang of robbers strikes at the home of the Aguinaldos. This crime unleashes past conflicts and trespasses among family members. Despite the season, love and peace don’t seem to reign in the hearts of the village residents. Even the children who are supposed to spread good tidings with their carols and hymns yell out cusses to residents who don’t give out offerings.

Scriptwriter Paul Sta. Ana crafts his best screenplay yet. The theme of Christian hypocrisy is slowly unveiled before our eyes. The amazing thing, and somewhat unfortunate at that, is the viewers see themselves in the despicable characters. The tight story benefits from superb acting. As the characters drown in a cesspool of lies, the mother (Raquel Villavicencio) remains calm and acts as a buoyant lifesaver. There's a scene showing her grabbing a knife. How we react to that scene speaks much of our disposition. The mother is not angry. She never gets angry despite all the trespasses inflicted on her. Villavicencio won a well-deserved award for her gentle performance. The ending shows the thief doling out aguinaldo (gift) to his inaanak. But, is he really the thief? What are the evidences that he is the one? Sta. Ana caught me empty-handed. It was unChristian of me to judge the man wearing the Ateneo jacket. 

There is a thing, or two, that bothers me though. The Aguinaldo family is lucky to have a fast-responding police force to their home on Christmas day! The team even has someone in charge of taking fingerprints. I was wondering whether it was really set in the Philippines. I sure hope that it is the case with most responding police teams in the country. I also hope that the taking of fingerprints is standard operating procedure during robbery investigation.

Films like Bisperas should be the ones shown during the Christmas season instead of inane Metro Manila Film Festival sequels. The family drama may not bring in long box-office lines, but it may send repentant viewers to line up for the confessional booth.